Knights battle elements to sweep Sheffield at tri-meet

Sheffield, Eisenhower, and North Clarion battled the elements on Thursday to open the 2014 high school track season in a tri-meet at Sheffield High School.

When all was said and done, North Clarion walked away with sweeps in both boys and girls meets, Eisenhower was 1-1 in both with wins over Sheffield, and the host Wolverines finished the day 0-2 all around.

The Lady Wolverines competed with only eight athletes, two of which qualified for the District 9 Championships with solid performances in their first meet of the year.

Sophomore Brittany Fritz will go to districts for the second time after a toss of 30’10.5″ in the shot put. Teammate Morgan Leichtenberger is also making a return trip, qualifying in the 100 hurdles with a time of 18.06.

Freshman Emily Groves had a pair of second place finishes for the Lady Wolverines in the 200 and 400 to go along with a third in the long jump.

Eisenhower’s Emily McJunkin qualified for the District 10 meet in the high jump, tying her personal-best height of 4’10”. McJunkin’s jump was half a foot above the rest of the field as Leichtenberger, Tiffany Work, and Holly Chapman tied for second at 4’4″.

“It was a very good meet to start out the season,” said Eisenhower coach Mike Logue. “For our limited time out on the track, just getting out and getting to run was nice. I was very pleased with how we did.”

Logue praised the performance of freshman Madi Hultman, winning javelin in 85 feet, 10 inches, and second in shot, and senior Lacey Stanko on the track.

“For a freshman to come out and do that in the first meet is very nice to see, and Lacey ran a very good time in the 200 and then had a great leg in the 4×400 relay to hold off North Clarion and get us the win,” said Logue.

Several Eisenhower boys turned in impressive performances, including Josh Eernisse (first in the 100 and 200), Randy Buchanan (first in the 400), Devin VanGuilder (first in the 1600 and 3200), and Tim Lange (first in the 300 hurdles). The Knights also took first place in the 4×100 relay with a time of 49.7 seconds.

Sheffield junior Adam Higby led the Wolverine boys with a pair of firsts in the field events, winning the javelin with a throw of 130’9″ and the high jump with a height of 5’9″. Higby also took second in the long and triple jumps.

Sheffield returns to action at Johnsonburg on Monday, April 7, and Ike hosts Titusville on Tuesday, April 8.